OFFICIAL SUPPORTERS CLUB

LEINSTER v SARACENS Heineken Champions Cup Quarter-Final Saturday 19th September 2020 OFFICIAL LEINSTER SUPPORTERS CLUB

LEINSTER v SARACENS

EUROPEAN RUGBY IS BACK! A victory is always one that should be savoured – especially one where you have in the last week just claimed your third successive domestic trophy in a row. Add to this the fact you secured it at home and on the back of an undefeated run of 16 games in the 2019/20 Guinness PRO14 season and it just makes it all even more special. As much though that, as a player within the current Leinster squad you would want GETTING TO AIRPORT to kick back and enjoy this with the 52 others on the playing squad who got us to this, well unfortunately last Sunday was probably the only day for a minor celebration and reflection on a fantastic domestic campaign.

By Monday, there was no doubt that upon arrival at training the focus was very much a case of Europe, the Heineken Champions Cup, and the next fixture in that campaign – our home Quarter Final against 2018/19 champions Saracens. Both Saracens and Leinster are no strangers to making their way to European finals with the visitors for this weekend having achieved glory on 3 occasions whilst we have our 4 stars and looking for our 5th.

The first game in this campaign kicked off for us way back in November 2019, where on Sat 16th we defeated the visitors for that day, on a score-line of 33pts to 19. A hat-trick from last weekend’s captain, was the highlight of a lively fixture in the RDS whilst defending champions Saracens meanwhile tasted defeat in Paris going down 30-10 to .

Must like our domestic run of form, the same was applied to the European fixtures and we rolled on until the final round of fixtures in January where an 18-0 defeat of Benetton saw us achieve 6/6 in Pool 1, as well as the Number 1 seed going into the knock-out stages. Saracens got some revenge for their opening weekend defeat by securing a 27-24 victory over Racing 92 in Allianz park and finished up in second place in Pool 4.

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LEINSTER v SARACENS

HOW THE POOL STAGES FINISHED

LEINSTER SARACENS 6 PL 6 6 W 4 0 D 0 0 L 2 199 PTSF 121 76 PTSA 88 123 DIFF 33 28 TF 13 9 TA 10 4 TB 1 0 LB 1 28 PTS 18

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LEINSTER v SARACENS

HOW THE POOL STAGES FINISHED We don’t need to go into detail of what happened next as we are all aware of the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on society right around the world, but after a layoff of 174 or so days, PRO14 rugby was back. For the Heineken Champions Cup, the last round of fixtures was Sun 19th January and now this weekend, and a mere 8 months on, European rugby is back!!

Both these sides are no strangers to making it to finals as we can see from the below with ourselves Champions on four occasions & Runners-up once, whilst Saracens have secured glory three times, and been Runners-up once (2013/14 where they were defeated 23 – 6 by Toulon in the ).

LEINSTER SARACENS 1 STANDINGS 2 3 HEAD TO HEAD (WINS) 1 W W W W RECENT FORM W W W L LAST 3 MEETINGS 10 11/05/2019 20 30 01/04/2018 19 43 15/01/2011 20 28 TOTAL TRIES 13 2,801 METRES GAINED 1,928 876 PASSES 708 938 TACKLES MADE 866 65 PENALTIES CONCEDED 42 65 TURNOVERS WON 42 OFFICIAL LEINSTER SUPPORTERS CLUB

LEINSTER v SARACENS

A HISTORY OF FINAL RESULTS 2008/09 Leinster 19 – 16 Leicester Murrayfield (66,523) 2010/11 Leinster 33 – 22 Northampton Millennium Stadium (72,456) 2011/12 Leinster 42 – 14 Twickenham (81,774) 2015/16 Saracens 21 – 9 Racing 92 Lyon (58,017) 2016/17 Saracens 28 – 17 Clermont Murrayfield (55,272) 2017/18 Leinster 15 – 12 Racing 92 Bilbao (52,282) 2018/19 Saracens 20 – 10 Leinster Newcastle (51,930)

OFFICIAL LEINSTER SUPPORTERS CLUB

LEINSTER v SARACENS

GAME STATS

LEINSTER SARACENS 28 (1) TRIES 13 (T10) 199 (2) POINT 121 821 (3) CARRIES NA 5 (T9) PENALTY GOALS 12 (T3) 22 (1) CONVERSIONS 9 (T9) 84 (2) CLEAN BREAKS NA 180 (3) DEFENDERS BEATEN NA 69 (10) LINEOUTS WON 74 (6) 2,801 (3) METRES 1,928 NA OFFLOADS NA 938 (4) TACKLES 866 (8) 35 (5) TURNOVERS WON 29 (T9) 65 (4) PENALTIES CONCEDED 42

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LEINSTER v SARACENS

ONES TO WATCH Garry Ringrose (6) Rotimi Segun (2) TRIES 470 MINUTES PLAYED 266 233 METRES 99 29 PASSES 6 58 CARRIES 14 42 TACKLES 18 30 POINTS 10 6 TOTAL GAMES 4 23 DEFENDERS BEATEN 6 14 MISSED TACKLES 8 10 CLEAN BREAKS 3 5 KICKS FROM HAND 2 3 TURNOVERS CONCEDED 9 NA OFFLOADS 2 OFFICIAL LEINSTER SUPPORTERS CLUB

LEINSTER v SARACENS

ONES TO WATCH (7) Maku Vunipola (4) TURNOVERS WON 445 MINUTES PLAYED 183 119 METRES 69 16 PASSES 4 28 CARRIES 37 98 TACKLES 27 5 POINTS 10 6 TOTAL GAMES 3 8 DEFENDERS BEATEN 3 5 MISSED TACKLES 2 7 CLEAN BREAKS 1 1 KICKS FROM HAND NA 2 TURNOVERS CONCEDED NA 1 OFFLOADS NA

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OFFICIAL LEINSTER SUPPORTERS CLUB

LEINSTER v SARACENS

WHAT CAN FANS DO As we have seen, it’s tough not being there in person to support the team however we must continue to make ourselves seen and heard and the best way to do this at the moment is through the power of social media.

The Official Leinster Supporters Club (OLSC), in conjunction with Bearing Point Official Innovation Partner of , as well as our own digital guru Chris Elward, have together these handy ‘Support From Home’ banners. There are 2 to choose from and we’re asking fans that where possible they print these off and have them ready for kick off. From the comfort of in front of the TV you’ll be able to shout, roar and wave your banner and really get into the atmosphere!

We’d also like to see your photographs waving the banners and wearing your blue and we’ll post them to our social media channels. We know the majority of the squad are followers of our pages and we have already seen how many of them have reacted in kind to the photos so we know what a lift they’re already getting from seeing all the fans behind them. With the competition now into the business end of knock- outs, it’s all go so let’s get more and more photos posted for the team to see.

CLICK HERE TO SEND US YOUR PHOTO

Our email address is [email protected] BEST OF TRY LUCK

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Leinster Rugby’s Innovation Partner, BearingPoint are asking fans to #Lineout4Leinster for this fixture so where possible, let’s get our voices heard on social media there too. OLSC ONLINE SHOP The Official Leinster Supporters Club (OLSC) are delighted to announce that we have now launched our online shop.

Previously orders were taken via email however with the launch of our online shop (through myshopify) you can browse the range of items available and make purchases easily via electronic payment.

To see the range of items available, The shop can be accessed via our Facebook please see our updated listing here page simply by clicking the ‘Shop Now’ button

VIEW RANGE SHOP NOW

**Stock is reordered regularly so if something is not available, please check back in a day or two** OFFICIAL LEINSTER SUPPORTERS CLUB

LEINSTER v SARACENS

A THANK YOU TO BARRY As a thank you for his fantastic service to Leinster Rugby, the OLSC were delighted to be given the opportunity to present a small token of our & indeed all the fans appreciation to .

Barry made 36 appearances and scored 19 tries during his time with Leinster, however over the summer he made the decision to retire from the game to pursue further education abroad.

He certainly had an interesting route to bursting his way onto the senior squad and was involved in some memorable games and occasions throughout his time with Leinster. We’d encourage you to watch the Thank You video kindly recorded by Barry which is over on our social media channels as due to current guidelines surrounding social distancing, we were unable to make the presentation in person.

Read all about his rise to the top here & thanks for the memories Barry.

READ HERE

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LEINSTER v SARACENS

GLOBAL BROADCAST INFORMATION The in Dublin is the venue for the first of the 2019/20 Heineken Champions Cup Quarter- Finals. This calendar year has been some journey to date however we’re delighted to see the restart of European Rugby and what is sure to be another cracking game of rugby (Saturday, KO 3pm)

The Official Leinster Supporters Club (OLSC) has compiled the following broadcast information for those of you unable to make the game;

Ireland & UK: LIVE on BT Sport 3 from 2.30pm

Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Canada & : LIVE on DAZN from 3.00pm

USA: LIVE or On Demand on ESPN+

New Zealand: Coverage on Sky Sports (please check your local area for coverage time)

Asia & : LIVE on Rugby Pass TV (please check your local area for coverage times)

RTE Radio 1: LIVE Radio commentary from 2:40pm as part of Saturday Sport

Twitter: @leinsterrugby – a Twitter account is not required to view updates

Leinster Rugby App: Supporters can follow the game with live score updates, live text commentary and stats in the Leinster Rugby App

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